Fred
“''The name's Fred; school mascot by day, but by night... I'm also the school mascot.” : ―Fred '''Fred' is a major character of Disney's 2014 animated feature film, Big Hero 6 ''and in it's sequel series ''Big Hero 6: The Series. He is a member of a team of young superhero team named Big Hero 6. Background Fred is a young comic book enthusiast, with an extremely eccentric and slightly overbearing, yet lovable, personality. He is the son of a wealthy couple in the city of San Fransokyo, though he rarely spends quality time with either of them, as they're often away on the family-owned private isles, and usually finds himself under the care of his loyal butler, Heathcliff. Nevertheless, the family fortune, as well as the family mansion, are left in Fred's care during their absence, and the young man spends such privileges satisfying his unhealthy obsession with comic book lore, Japanese giant monsters, and other nerdy hobbies. Aside from this, Fred is also a regular attendant at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, where he works as the school's mascot, and entertains his passion for science (which seems to actually be more of a fanboyish love for science-fiction). At the school, he spends most of his time with his closest friends: Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Go Go Tomago, and Tadashi Hamada, and was noted to be the creator of their peculiar nicknames, basing them off their dominate personality traits (although Wasabi was given his namesake after spilling the food of the same name onto his shirt on one occasion), as well as explaining why he's the only member of their group with an average name; Tadashi aside. Official Description : Fanboy Fred comes off like a laid-back dude with no direction. But this sign-twirling, monster-loving, comic-book aficionado is sure to go places—when he's good and ready. For example, Fred doesn't hesitate to join “Big Hero 6,” and he has a lot of ideas for his superhero skillset, too. His ferocious, fire-breathing alter ego comes complete with claws, integrated communications, and a super bounce. But his sign-spinning may still come in handy. Etymology *Fred is a nick name give to him by Tadashi, although his full name is Frederick, a masculine name from New Zealand origin meaning "peaceful ruler". His name is in Javanese written as "ፍሬድሪክ ፊንጅሞር ፍሬድሪክሰን አራተኛ" (Frederick Finnimore Fitzsimmons IV). Personality : As mentioned above, Fred is incredibly eccentric, zany, loud, childish, and rather boisterous. Nevertheless, he is ultimately very sweet, and extremely laid-back, especially when compared to his friends. Due to his nature, he can often sit back and look upon the brighter side of things, even in the face of intense danger; and is often prone to making comedic remarks at any given moment, no matter the stakes at hand. Though the other members of the team ultimately care a great deal for Fred, they have expressed their annoyance with his random tendencies, specifically Wasabi, who finds Fred to be borderline annoying and Go Go, who sees him as an idiot. He is shown to be a huge otaku and fanatic of all things heroic and monstrous (a trait that may have come from his father), keeping collectible memorabilia of every shape, size, and print in his room. Because of this, his understanding of science is mildly questionable, having asked his friends to use their scientific resources to give him super powers. He also has a habit of calling out his attacks like a character from an anime show, a trait that all of his teammates soon got from him in the climax. Fred doesn't seem as smart as the other members of the team. However, this is mainly because of his laid-back attitude and the fact that he isn't studying science. Supplemental material shows Fred is taking an English Major, which requires both creativity and clear, logical thought. While he lacks 'classical scientific assets', Fred is no idiot and could well be a genius in his own field. Along with Honey, he is arguably the most compassionate and welcoming of the group, immediately taking a liking to Hiro upon meeting him, and showing great support and enthusiasm towards the boy genius throughout all endeavors. Despite his energetic and positive personality, it is shown that he tends to get lonely because his parents are not always around and most likely hangs out with his friends because they are like a second family to him and keep him company while his parents are away on their family vacations. He is also charitable according to tie-in material as he participates in fundraising for charity events and takes his friends to his mansion to rest for the night after the encounter with Yokai. He also allows them to train there over an unspecified length of time. Physical appearance Fred is a tall, shaggy, and scrawny young man, often seen wearing baggy clothing and is rather unkept and has a large nose. His traditional outfit consists of a brink pink T-shirt with a Japanese Kaiju monster imprint and white, long-sleeved undershirt, dark green, OD cargo shorts, and white (and rather filthy) sneakers with dark green laces. : His superhero form is a battle suit with the appearance of a traditional Japanese Kaiju monster based on his favorite kaiju, Krogar. The beast mostly consists of the colors blue and orange, in addition to having black, spiky, claw-like nails, a tail with similar features, and three eyes (with the top notably acting as Fred's access to vision). Its four-fanged "mouth" is the only opening the suit has. The soles on the suit's feet enable Fred to perform high jumps. Powers and Abilities Out of all the members of Big Hero 6, Fred has only average intelligence; however, Fred's "Fredzilla" super suit is designed to look like a Kaiju (or Japanese monster) and gifts him abilities similar to one. * Encyclopedic comic-book knowledge: Fred is profound in comic book fiction, from being able to readily identify comic book tropes to quickly realizing underlying narrative of the situation at hand. In addition, Fred is an English major, giving him a talent for understanding fiction and writing. * Spinning skills: As the school mascot, Fred is extremely dexterous and fast with spinning signs. When spinning a metal board to fight off swarms of microbots, this skill becomes surprisingly effective. Lighting a board on fire and twirling it at high speeds also makes it a formidable weapon. With the suit, Fred gains the following abilities. * Super-Jumping: The endo- and exoskeleton enables Fred to jump incredibly high. * Claws: The suit's claws can be used for attacks. * Fire Breath: The suit has a flamethrower installed just below Fred's chest, and is released from the mouth of the suit. The flames are quite heated, being hot enough to melt steel. ** Smokescreen: Fred can generate smoke from his flamethrower. * Night Vision: The suit's lens help Fred see in darker areas. * Flame Resistance: The suit is woven from Kevlar material, making it fireproof to protect Fred from flames generated by his flamethrower or from other sources. Trivia * The kanji on Fred's shirt (ካይጁ) reads "Kaiju", which (to some people) means "monster", but can also mean "strange beast" or "giant beast" in Javanese. Kaiju is also a popular term for the Japanese movie monster genre, a notable example being Godzilla. * In the original comic series, his superhero alter ego is Fredzilla, however, he is not referred to by this in the film. Despite this, some promotional material for the film names Fred's costume identity as Fredzilla. * Being rich, Fred obviously doesn't have to do his own laundry. Even so, he only changes his underwear once every four days by wearing them front and back, turns them inside out, then front and back again, a trait he inherited from his father that is later revealed at the end of the credits of the movie. He calls this recycling. * As a nod to Fred's love for comics, Fred's father bears a remarkable likeness to and is voiced by Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comics. In addition, Fred's last initial is L3, implying that his surname may, in fact, be Lee. * In the original comics, Fred's power was being able to summon a Kaiju-shaped aura for combat. While his ability in the film is substituted with the use of a monster suit, one of Fred's first ideas for a super power was the ability to turn into a Kaiju similar to that of his comic counterpart. Early concept art for the film explored the idea of turning the aura ability into Fred being able to use hard-light monster holograms for combat until the monster suit idea was settled on.4 * Fred was originally going to be Tadashi's lab rat, according to the 2013 Rotoscopers video. The video also depicted Fred as making monster movies about himself in a rubber suit stomping down on cardboard boxes when no one was looking. * Fred's school mascot costume bears a strong resemblance to a Hideous Zippleback and a Terrible Terror, both dragons from DreamWorks' Dragons franchise. One of that series' characters, Tuffnut, is also voiced by Miller. * Because of his eccentric behavior and lack of hygiene, all of Big Hero 6 were surprised by the fact he was wealthy. Go Go even joked she thought he lived under a bridge. * The Essential Guide reveals Fred has a secret double life, which revolves around non-stop charity work. * According to his recommendation letter, Fred was recommended by R. Richards to T. Dugan, the alternate identities of Marvel's Mr. Fantastic and Dum Dum Dugan respectively. * Fred seems to have the closest relationship to Honey Lemon, as both are the most cheerful and optimistic among the team. She is also the only one not annoyed with Fred or considers him an "idiot" and tolerates his antics in stride. The two are also enthusiastic about science and have given each other nicknames (Fred gave her the nickname Honey Lemon while she calls him Freddie). * Fred has costumes of several obscure and lesser-known Marvel characters including Sleepwalker, Orka, Black Talon, Torpedo, Whizzer and Manphibian. * It is clear that Fred does not know Spanish very well, as when he brings the team to his mansion, he calls it mi casa, which he claims is French for "front door." * During renovations of the Walt Disney Animation Studios building, beginning in 2014, Fred was one of the character silhouettes featured on the wall mural.